The invention relates to a gear shift transmission for a motor vehicle, particularly a racing car, having a transmission housing which includes an axle housing, an intermediate plate and housing bell flanged to the intermediate plate, and containing several forward gears and a reverse gear in such manner that transmission ratios can be adapted more easily to different vehicle and road courses.
A gear shift transmission of this general type shown in DE-OS 35 30 017 which includes an input shaft and an output shaft parallel to the input shaft. A transmission housing has three bearing plates for bearing of the input shaft and the output shaft, specifically a front bearing plate close to the axle, a center plate and a rear bearing plate. The input shaft comprises a center shaft and a hollow shaft which is both concentric to this center shaft and disposed on the center shaft close to the center plate. The second and fourth transmission gears are on one side of the center plate, whereas the first, third, fifth and reverse gears are on the other side of the center plate and between the center plate and the rear bearing plate.
It is an object of the invention to develop a gear shift transmission with a transmission housing of this general type such that optimal requirements can be met by adapting the transmission ratios with low mounting expenditures to different vehicles and road courses, particularly in the case of racing cars where each racing track requires a special adaptation of the number and ratios of the transmission gears which must often be carried out on site after preliminary testing.
The foregoing objects are achieved in accordance with the present invention by arranging the reverse gear and at least one low forward gear between the front bearing plate and the intermediate plate with the higher transmission gears arranged between the rear bearing plate and the intermediate plate. If the higher transmission gears in the housing bell are arranged between the rear bearing plate and the intermediate plate, the corresponding gear wheels will be easily exchangeable after the removal of the housing bell without having to remove the entire transmission. The reverse gear and the lower forward gears which do not have to be adapted to the respective race course will always remain in the axle housing.